Top DVD releases of 2004

By David Germain, AP Movie Writer | December 21, 2004

One fan's picks for best 2004 DVD releases:

New movies:

1. "American Splendor" -- The strange journey of cult comic writer Harvey Pekar grows more splendorous with commentary from him and the filmmakers, plus Pekar's comic book chronicling the movie's history.

2. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" -- This has to rank high, for sheer scope of background materials in its two-disc theatrical and four-disc extended cuts.

3. "In America" -- Jim Sheridan's exquisite semi-autobiographical account of an Irish family transplanted to New York is augmented by a lovely collection of deleted footage.

4. "Mystic River" -- Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Academy Awards for Clint Eastwood's portrait of childhood pals reunited by a murder. The three-disc set with commentary and the soundtrack is the one to own.

5. "The Barbarian Invasions" -- Come for the bawdy banter of intellectual snobs, stay for the charming DVD dinner chat among cast members.

6. "The Station Agent" -- Chummy commentary with stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale and filmmaker Tom McCarthy is like an evening with old friends.

7. "Super Size Me" -- Morgan Spurlock stuffs in Big Macs. His DVD stuffs in funny extras. The recipes from Spurlock's vegan-chef girlfriend are an especially nice touch.

8. "City of God" -- A searing portrait of boys with guns in Rio De Janeiro's narcotics gangs, accompanied by a compelling documentary on the city's murderous drug wars.

9. "The Triplets of Belleville" -- One of the best advertisements for DVD over VHS: Videotape would never survive the repeated viewings Sylvain Chomet's intoxicating animated flick command.

10. "Love Actually" -- Richard Curtis' big, sloppy ensemble affair in praise of romance has one of the most polished batch of deleted scenes ever issued on a DVD.

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Reissued films:

1. "Schindler's List" -- Steven Spielberg's Holocaust masterpiece is cinema's greatest testament to survival.

2. "Ikiru" -- With sublime compassion, Akira Kurosawa traces the story of a common man looking for meaning in his meager life as death nears.

3. "The Rules of the Game" -- Jean Renoir's comic drama remains the ultimate satire of master-and-servant relations.

4. "La Dolce Vita" -- Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece of show-business decadence, beautifully restored.

5. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" -- The quintessential spaghetti Western from Sergio Leone is even better with 18 minutes of restored footage.

6. "Ed Wood" -- Tim Burton spins one of the great flicks about an artistic nobody.

7. "My Fair Lady" -- For its 40th birthday, George Cukor's grand musical gets a sumptuous DVD makeover.

8. "The Commitments" -- Alan Parker's raucous soul-music saga finally gets proper DVD treatment.

9. "Short Cuts" -- Nice touch, packaging Robert Altman's ensemble tale with a paperback of Raymond Carver stories that inspired it. Continued...

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